Nepal a transit point for trading wildlife parts

The recent confiscation of Shahtoosh wool has prompted a suspicion that Nepal has long been used as a transit point to smuggle Shahtoosh to external countries.

On 3 February 2013, the team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) detained Chhetan Lama, Tembal Lama and Pantu aka Aampe along with confiscating 400kg of Shahtoosh wool in Dhading disrict. Chhetan and Tembal are the residents of Dhading district whereas Pantu is a Tibetan national who came to Nepal about two months back to help Chhetan and Tembal find the Chiru habitat in a Tibetan village bordering Gorkha district.

Their arrest led the CIB to identify that the Shahtoosh wool, confiscated from Gorkha district about a month ago and recently in Dhading, was trafficked by the same racketeers, Chhetan, Tembal and Pantu. The trio absconded since the CIB seized the Shahtoosh wool in Gorkha district.

Likewise, the joint team of CIB and Department of Forests arrested Bhupen Ghale, a resident of Nuwakot, with one red panda skin on 4 February 2013 from Nuwakot district.

On a separate mission carried out by the team from Bardia National Park and Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve Rajan Bahadur Thapa was arrested with a tiger bone on 4 February 2013. Thapa who was long involved in smuggling tiger parts was arrested while he was trying to sell the tiger bone to a client.

If found guilty the culprits can be fined Rs 75000,000 of face up to 10 years in jail or both.